Grace Fuja

Won Cancer-treatment Suit

Grace Rodela Fuja, 37, who won a lawsuit against an insurance company that refused to cover a controversial new medical treatment for breast cancer, died Friday in her South Side home.

Mrs. Fuja was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989. Doctors discovered in February 1992 that the cancer had spread to her lungs.

The spread of the disease was temporarily halted with standard-dose chemotherapy, but doctors said Mrs. Fuja's chances for long-term survival were negligible without a new procedure that involves high-dose chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.

Her insurance company, Lake Forest-based Benefit Trust Life Insurance Co., said it would not pay for the treatment, which can cost more than $150,000. Benefit Trust contended that the procedure is not medically accepted and that Mrs. Fuja's policy excluded coverage for experimental treatments.

Mrs. Fuja brought suit against Benefit Trust in U.S. District Court. On Dec. 22, the judge ordered Benefit Trust to pay for the procedure.

Mrs. Fuja was treated soon afterward at the University of Chicago Medical Center, but her condition later deteriorated.

Benefit Trust is appealing the decision.

"She was very optimistic about it and was very hopeful," said her sister, Rosa Moist. "I don't think she ever regretted going through it. She had only been married a year and had high hopes of spending more time with her husband."

Mrs. Fuja, who worked for a Hinsdale medical billing service, taught Sunday classes at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Palos Hills.

She is survived by her husband, Kenneth; her father, Jose Rodela; three sisters; and four brothers.

Visitation will be from 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday in Kosary Funeral Home, 9837 S. Kedzie Ave., Evergreen Park. Services will be held there at 9 a.m. Monday.